Town considers relocating fire station to Uffington

The Town of Bracebridge is taking steps to close Fire Station 2 on Highway 118 East and relocate the facility to Uffington.

During their latest meeting, council agreed to allow the Fire Chief, in consultation with the Chief Administrative Officer and the Director of Finance to look into the acquisition of property to facilitate construction of a new Bracebridge Fire Station 2 and report back to the General Committee.

Fire Chief Murray Medley had previously presented the results of an internal feasibility study and analysis for the replacement of Fire Station 2, highlighting the background of the project, the current station location, facility staffing and fleet, and call volume.

The current station is located Hwy 118 East, across from Brid Lake Road, and was built in 1982. An addition in 2010 raised the total square footage to 1,680 sq. ft., council heard, but the building still doesn’t meet current code and function requirements.

Medley said Fire Station 2 is some 32 km away from Fire Station 1 on Taylor Road in urban Bracebridge. He said the station has had an average complement of 12 firefighters over the last 15 years. However, they currently have only one Station Captain, one Acting Captain and eight firefighters.

The consultants, the Loomex Group, weighed a number of options, including renovating the existing building or tearing it down and rebuilding it on the same site. Due to age, condition of the building and location they recommended against those options.

Instead, they said the preferred move was to build somewhere with access to more homes and businesses. Council heard that location was likely somewhere in the Uffington area. From that location they could serve residents running off the Hwy 118 East corridor plus the Ecclestone Dr. Commercial area, council heard.

Chief Medley will return to the council with his findings before any final decision on location is made.